Interior Minister Tsushko claims he was poisoned

SBU is connected with his poisoning, he says

Politics

12:19, 26 September 2007

Vassyl Tsushko, Interior Minister of Ukraine and SPU candidate to parliament, surmises that he was poisoned by those who organized seizure of the Prosecutor’s General Office on 27 May. He claimed this to a press conference in Kyiv today.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, V.Tsushko recalled that, after the developments of 27 May, when he “introduced order into the PGO building after it was seized by civil persons, and issued an order to stop troops, which were moving to Kyiv”, he suffered a heart attack.

V.Tsushko informed journalists that after he underwent a medical treatment in Germany, he harbored several suspicions about what happened to him. In particular, according to him, the diagnosis of Ukrainian doctors was a “heart attack”, while analysis in Germany indicated that his heart was in a good condition.

Besides, V.Tsushko stressed, after he was taken to hospital on May 29, acting SBU [Ukrainian Secret Service] chief Valentyn Nalyvaychenko visited him in hospital on his own initiative. “I’m convinced they sent him to see whether I died or would I die soon”, V.Tsushko stressed. At the same time, he emphasized he does not suspect V.Nalyvaychenko of organizing his poisoning, and believes that V.Nalyvaychenko was sent to him on the order of the Presidential Secretariat.

In the course of the press-conference, journalists were provided with copies of Tsushko’s medical tests, which were carried out in two independent laboratories of Germany. According to results of the tests, a lethal dose of teofilin and digoxin was discovered in the blood of V.Tsushko, and caused his heart attack.

“Who committed this and due to which reasons? I believe it could have been done by instigators and customers, who organized the seizure of the PGO, and the second reason could be my anti-corruption activities in the Interior Ministry”, V.Tsushko believes.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the conflict in the building of the Prosecutor’s General Office took place late in May, when President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko sacked Sviatoslav Piskun from the post of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, and appointed Victor Shemchuk on this post. S.Piskun claimed that he was sacked illegally and refused to leave the office.

Having enlisted the support of Interior Minister Tsushko (who described the President’s decision as a coup) and riot police units, S.Piskun returned to his cabinet, and banished V.Shemchuk and state guards from the building.

The next day, PGO brought criminal cases on articles “seizure of a state building” and “abuse of official authorities”. V.Tsushko himself, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada, recognized that he was “too emotional”. In several days he was taken to hospital with a heart attack.

If you notice a spelling error, please highlight it with your mouse and press Ctrl+Enter